OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — A large Oak Ridge cleanup contractor that works with Y-12 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to prepare sites for construction and demolition signed a new agreement with a national labor union on Wednesday.
The agreement was an effort to make United Cleanup Oak Ridge better able to recruit and retain skilled construction trade workers, according to a release. It signed a Project Labor Agreement with North America's Building Trades Unions, impacting around 550 trade workers. That makes up around a quarter of the company's workforce, according to the release.
The agreement offers a 20% wage increase over a three-year period. In the first year, workers in the union will see a 12% pay increase, according to the release. It will be retroactive to Oct. 1, 2023. The agreement also gives craft workers nine paid holidays, as well as a contract bonus and retention incentive program.
The agreement is also the first-ever agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and a national labor organization, according to NABTU.
The release said that the previous Construction Labor Agreement that was in place with local building trades limited the company's ability to offer competitive wages. It said the agreement resulted in an attrition rate of more than 20% for company craft workers.
“Without the support of our labor workforce, we would not have successfully completed the first-ever cleanup of a gaseous diffusion plant ahead of schedule and under budget,” said Ken Rueter in a release, the president of UCOR.
UCOR already demolished two old reactors at ORNL and is preparing former uranium processing sites at Y-12 for demolition.
